EPS Concentration, Reporting Season Takeaways, Another Consumer Surprise

Three big things you need to know: First, EPS growth in the top 7 names in the S&P 500 is expected to continue outpacing the rest of the index in 2024 and 2025, but to a lesser degree than we saw in 2023. Second, companies have tried to strike an optimistic tone in the first batch of 4Q23 earnings calls, with consumer resilience, macro risks, and the theme of normalization emphasized. Third, the thing that jumped out to us the most in our high frequency indicators last week was the strong reading in University of Michigan consumer sentiment, which stock market performance has been closely correlated with post COVID.